- Belgian Grand Prix
Pirelli blames piece of metal for punctures
- Race:
- Belgian Grand Prix
Pirelli suspects a piece of metal on the exit of Turn 13 (the Fagnes chicane) caused the punctures in Friday's second practice session at the Belgian Grand Prix.
The investigation is still ongoing but a piece of metal was found beyond the kerb that Pirelli believes could have caused the damage to the tyres seen on Friday afternoon. Fernando Alonso suffered a slow puncture from two holes in the tread of the tyre while Sebastian Vettel had a more dramatic failure as the tread came away from the sidewalls of his tyre.
Pirelli said a number of other cuts had been found on the right-hand side tyres, which would be logical given where the piece of metal was found. The debris has been removed from the track in the hope that there will be no further issues over the rest of the weekend.
On Friday night some of the drivers raised the issue of the punctures at the drivers' briefing, but Pirelli does not believe the failures on Friday are in any way related to the structural problems it suffered at Silverstone.